Pakistan arrests ex-head of banned Sunni group

Pakistani children hold candles at the site of Saturday's bombing, in Quetta, Pakistan, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. Pakistani Shiites buried their kin killed in a massive bombing last weekend in the southwestern city of Quetta but the funeral on Wednesday was marred by gunfire as both protesters and police fired into the air. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Police say they have arrested the former chief of a banned Sunni extremist group in central Pakistan.

Senior police officer Ashfaq Gujar says Malik Ishaq was arrested in the central city of Rahim Yar Khan on Friday. It was not immediately clear on what charges he was arrested.

Ishaq is one of the founders of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, which is accused of killing hundreds of minority Shiites Muslims.

He was also briefly detained last year, following attacks against Shiites in the country. His latest arrest came less than a week after a bombing at a market in the southwestern city of Quetta killed 89 Shiites.

Advertisement

Most victims of Saturday’s bombing were Hazaras, a Shiite ethnic group that migrated to Pakistan from Afghanistan more than a century ago.